Master the Business of Photography

Lesson 4 of 41

The Changing World We Live In

Master the Business of Photography

Lesson 4 of 41

The Changing World We Live In

Lesson Info

The Changing World We Live In

Let's talk about the changing world we're living in as we as we understand photography we understand what's happening in the business we live in let's look at the landscape I think that's very very important and so in the spirit of all that again and for you guys out there take advantage of us if you're watching right now hit that chat room, get in there and ask lots of questions because the only way you're gonna be able to interact with us after that is to follow us online because you're going you don't have a ton of questions about everything you're here and we're gonna lose this live aspect so follow me on twitter south and kata, instagram same thing if you don't have an instagram account, you need to get one I promise you you need an instagram account and by the end of the segment you're going to understand why been on facebook dot com bt shutter okay that's the behind the shutter facebook page follow us there that's going to give you access to me and I'll be looking there four que...

stions to kind of help you as this thirty days goes on so all right let's kind of dig into this the changing world we live in we all agree everyone's a photographer let's kind of dissect what that really means and how that impacts our business we're gonna talk about the portrait market in general right of course there's different niches there's glamour there's fashion there's landscape and on and on and on still life whatever the case may be but there's the portrait market we need to talk about it understand it embrace it and understand how that's gonna impact our business and then of course the wedding market so you don't necessarily have to be a wedding photographer to understand these demographics it's very very important but of course if you are winning photographer these air numbers you're going definitely want to pay attention to and so let's just dig in to the fact that everyone is a photographer this is the world we live in there's no escaping it okay everyone who's got a camera is absolutely a photographer now the previous segment I talked about everyone should enjoy photography absolutely it's amazing thing we get to express ourselves document life relive memories that's perfect but not everyone should be a professional photographer and so stop we have to learn to embrace the fact that everyone is a photographer but more importantly embrace today's generation and I think I told this story once before but if you follow me online you'll always see me with this little girl her name is sofia and it's my buddy's daughter okay she's three years old now I've been there since she was since she was born been in her life and for me it's been really interesting tow watch her grow up. Okay, she's not my kid. I don't enjoy all these other memories that you have is a parent, but tow watch our group's been really interesting. And the most fascinating piece for me in watching her grow up is watching her relive her life over and over again and here's what I mean by it. At two she knew how to undo his iphone, right? The security code. She knew how to open up the security code. She knew how to go to the aps and she knew how to launch a game a two years old. Okay, I don't know. Maybe that's like you've got your own kids and you think this is amazing for me? It was super amazing. Tau watch her figure this out at two years old because it's a signal of what's to come if by two years old they're already embracing technology what's gonna happen by the time they're twenty in twenty two years old that's where mine mine's going, right? I'm thinking about like, how is this going to change the market at three years old now the last three years of her life are documented on that iphone she actually will scroll through it's so funny because there's, this picture of me and elissa was my second shooter there's this picture of us in front of ah stuffed bear okay and uh on lee through the mind of a child there's a picture in front of stuffed bear mean elissa are like rarr we're doing this in front in front of it okay, little sofia we'll go through the pictures this was when she was two she would go through those pictures and she would stop at that one picture and she would look at me and alissa and she would go oh no oh no for the bear okay, that was her thing so she manages at three years old to relive her life over and over again to any of us have that ability I don't my my my memories is a child scattered all over the place, right? Maybe my mom had a home video when I was kid but there's pictures that are everywhere maybe there's like I can think of maybe ten pictures in my own mind that exist to kind of document my childhood she's now reliving her life over and over again on this iphone that is the future you understand this there's no way to stop it from happening and the demands of that generation what will they be? I don't know at this point we can only guess it's like it's like a scifi movie right? What will the future look like? What we have flying cars things like that? Well, what will photography look like in the future and we talk about this in a later segment but I truly believe that what it means to be a photographer will change it will have to change to adapt to the changing client that's where we all miss the boat we intend to embrace photography and think about it from a center out right we are the photographer here's what I do I want to think about it a little bit differently in the spirit of everyone's a photographer there's no doubt she's going to be a photographer look a teens today they're all photographers they're doing instagram they're doing facebook they're doing selfies right there everyone's a photographer so how do we tap into this market to really get them excited about photography it can't just be right well here's how I shoot we have to understand what products they're looking for we have to understand the value proposition what is that value proposition so just some interesting perspective I wanted to share with you this is how I'm starting to see the world and think about you in your own life I'm sure you've got nieces, nephews, kids they are so far ahead of the technology curve than we were when we were kids uh what's that generation gonna want it's going to be different than what we want and it's definitely gonna be different than what we think the future holds and so start trying to see the world through those particular client's um everyone not only is every one of guitar for but it's always on okay? They actually now have sites for wedding pictures. Have you seen these like this is a site called ever snap one of dozens and dozens of sites that offer brides to have all your guests take their pictures from their iphones and upload them to this one site. Okay, this exists this is one of a dozen sites that are out there. I would make the argument that this company, no matter what you think about it as a photographer, this company took that look just like I was looking at little sofia and going what will the future hold for sophia? What products or services can I offer sofia to keep her motivated to keep to entice her to hire me for services? I make the argument that a company like every snap looked at the market and said, ok, all your guests are taking phones with their eye phones or androids whatever they're using right there taking pictures what do these pictures end up? How do you get them to the bride and groom? How do you share them with the event? Here's the answer this is not going away this will never change. However talk about everyone being a photographer it really does drive the point home, doesn't it? This is my competition now I now a salvador cincotti photography in a sense and competing with ever snap but more than likely not the way you think ever snap is not going to show up and start taking wedding pictures what is the true competition there? The compass it competition is timing now before I can even get home and download my pictures they're seeing the imagery in minutes minutes that bride can see that first kiss not through my camera she's seeing it through two hundred of her gas camera how do I beat that? How do I compete with that? We have to start thinking about this this is not going away. This is only gonna get worse. How many times can she see that first kiss? Whether it's from somebody else's camera somebody's iphone how many times did she look at it? And then two weeks later two weeks I got to be honest with you too. We turn time on images for my wedding clients I think that's huge that's one of my competitive advantages this is like a two second turn time. This is instant gratification what we do we're just gonna complain about this we're going to stick our heads synced and pretend like it doesn't exist we're gonna embrace it I won't embrace it I'm going to be all over this we talk about this in a segment I'm gonna have my iphone out I'm gonna be taking pictures posted on the instagram if my clients have something like this I'm gonna be posting to this I'm gonna be taking pictures of the back of my camera and getting them up online I've got to be better faster then my competitors however my competitors is not you the photographer I've already beaten you I beat you when I won the account right? So now on the day of the wedding I'm no longer competing for the business I got the business, I'm competing for emotion right right now I want to get to my bride before her guests do that's my competition now I'm competing with everybody who's in that venue who's a photographer everyone's a photographer I got little kids running around with iphones was at a wedding a few a few months ago there was probably I'm probably wrong in her age, but she was seven or eight years old running around with a five d just running around and I was I was cracking up laughing but she was coming in and she was mocking me. She was like, okay, look at each other and then she starts taking pictures but she was like, really taking pictures, the camera was really firing, I'm like she may have gotten a better picture than I got right and so I got to start worrying about these things uh he's gonna have a little drink on me that's how we're doing it I like it it's good times got a potty mouth I'm alright with it I'm gonna have a drink too thanks for the celebration joined in there all right we got a tip jar in the back all right? So let's keep up so we have to understand that this is the world we live in there's no escaping it right now but we have to embrace it we have to go after we have to attack it we can't just complain about it nothing is going to change this no matter how much we want to complain about it nothing is going to change it. It doesn't mean I'm not upset about it. It doesn't mean I'm not concerned about it I'm not scared about it, it just means I don't want to live with my head in the sand we have to part heads out of the sand except the landscape for what it is and embrace it and that my friends is reality. That situation I just shared with you where their guests are there posting images online is reality it's happening to all of us right now in fact there's even a trend going on where brides are saying enjoy our unplugged wedding so it's going the other way brides don't want twenty people you know, two hundred people with their cameras getting in the way, they just wanted to enjoy the event that's great those they're few and far between the majority of those events are happening with them taking pictures and it's not just weddings when I'm doing senior sessions, baby sessions, anything I'm doing I've got a parent over my shoulder with with their iphone happens to all of us ok? So we've got to learn how to be better faster and understand that that market and so we have to learn how to compete and it comes back to that same thing what is your x factor if the only thing I'm doing to compete is I say I got a camera I gotta one d x I got a medium format camera the average client doesn't know what that is they don't even care what that is that's also part of the problem we have to be able to understand clearly and articulate clearly what our competitive advantages what is your x factor? What makes you different than your competitors? What makes your image is different than that of what mom just posted online and remember what we talked about in that first opening segment indifference the average client doesn't care they don't get it the average client doesn't understand the difference between good quality paper, bad quality paper and I hate to break the news to everyone sitting here wal mart is a pretty damn good job printing out of their lab those or fuji machines they've gotten their lives or the same machines that our labs professional labs they're using now I get it the average wal mart you go into the machines to crap shoot the machines either calibrated correctly or it's not, but in those I got one right by me the machines calibrated correctly if I'm in a jam I got a one hour photo and those pictures are rock solid uh right look, exactly this came off my computer screen now I'm not advocating that we're going to go and we're going to abandon our labs and we're gonna start using walmart to fulfill our prince it's not what I'm saying what I'm saying though is that can no longer be the difference used to be for tigers would make the difference here is a professional quality print here's one that you get from your local lap well, that difference is shrinking it doesn't really exist anymore, eh? So the colors, the tones, everything everything's there it's solid the paper solids fuji fuji machine okay, so what is that difference in a way that our clients I can relate to the clients have to relate to it if they can't relate to it, it just doesn't matter anymore and what is your ultimate answer if you realize everyone's a photographer, what is your answer? You're gonna walk out here and do what? Next time you get a wedding, he got mom over your shoulder taking pictures. What do you do? You get all huffy about it, go into a newsgroup and just start bitching about it. Or are you going to do? You have ah, reald difference between you and them and for me, I'm embracing it when I see sights like this, I'm absolutely embracing it. Yeah, show me where I gotta send pictures. I'm taking pictures on my phone. I'm editing them on my iphone. I'm uploading them from there. It's a reality. We have to beat them to the punch. And so let's, think into some numbers here. These are the numbers is why want you following us online? Maybe he called us up. Did you know over four hundred million photos per day are uploaded to facebook? Literally everyone is a photographer. Four hundred million photos maybe we don't even call in photos. What if we take it a different way for hundred million memories are uploaded to facebook every day. Memories because that's all it is right, facebook is that place that timeline everything's kept track of I mean, what about your own lives? How to use facebook? How do you embrace facebook for me, it's my life my life is there you asked me hey you know I I know you got some cool pictures when you were in china or wherever the hell I was yeah it's on my facebook site I'll go to my facebook site and start scrolling through to that date to that time to find that picture to show you or I'll go to my album to find that picture to show you it's a memory and so four hundred million memories are being uploaded every single day to facebook and so if you're that photographer who's out there and you still have not embraced facebook just wow that's all I can say is just wow this is where your clients are so you can keep living living with your head in the sand and by the way I don't say you're probably sitting here some of you are going who's not on facebook you would be surprised how many emails per day I get per week telling me they're not on facebook they refused to be on facebook that's actually what I get told I refused to go to facebook I understand it's pretty expensive free so why go on there and create a free account? I mean I could really that consent your business back a lot of money it's just stupid instagram though this is the place where people have not quite embraced you get these numbers when I found these numbers I was like wow, this is mind blowing to me first of all, hopefully everybody knows if you don't facebook owns instagram one billion dollars one billion dollars they paid for it tobe I instagram so facebook sees where the trends are going and I'm telling you instagram is becoming that trend check out these numbers in the first quarter of twenty fourteen this is really relevant data cue one of twenty fourteen that's january february march twenty five percent growth in new users signing up for instagram twenty five percent you understand we're not talking about that a thousand users and now they've got twelve hundred fifty you're talking about sites that have millions and millions of users and they they're growing at a twenty five percent rate this's where people are going this is where our clients are going we have to embrace it instagram two hundred million monthly active users so it's not about just people that are signed up who cares if they sign up? They have a debt account that's useless to all of us this is two hundred million active monthly users this is really powerful stuff this is an interesting stat and so if you're a senior for tyre for portrait photographer check this out forty one percent of their user base is age sixteen to twenty four I don't want to be where their parents are their parents are on facebook they want to be on instagram numbers don't lie forty one percent so if you're going after seniors family's portrait and you're not embracing instagram you're ignoring numbers you're not being a very good business person the's air numbers that don't lie forty one percent sixteen to twenty for that number blew me away and we're seeing it real time right so it's not like I read these numbers and I go at that doesn't really add up it actually does add up our high school seniors when I asked him hey do you want me to post your picture to facebook they're like oh can you do instagram we saw that trend start last year this year that's what we want to do we wantto come going into next year we wanna make sure we're using more more instagram with the kids verse facebook personally I like instagram better in screams all about pictures right facebook you get into people's like status is I'm having such a bad day like good for you okay but instagrams about imagery posting pictures and guess what we're photographers so that's kind of where we should be we should be posting pictures this next one is incredible to fifty five million photos per day are being posted up to instagram fifty five million photos everyone's a photographer we all are you know I'm here in seattle and I was taking pictures out of my room I was editing them I didn't pull my camera so in my room in my cup apartment that we have here in seattle right now we have all my camera equipment, right? I won the x on my glass. What do I take out? I want to take a picture of this gorgeous sunset in seattle. I pull out my iphone to take that picture. Not my camera was I tell you, it's, just easy, it's practical, right it's it's just convenient. And this is where this is, what we're seeing out of our client's there's a time and place for professional photography. Then there's there's whole genres or write books dedicated to the iphone. Ah graffiti! Right iphone agua for it's there it's really happening? So let's, go back to this right here you need to be following me online for the sake of this course, writes on twitter south and kata on instagram, south and kata and then on facebook bt shutter because we're going to we're going to keep using and showing you how we use facebook how we're using social media like pinterest, twitter, instagram how we're using those things in our business really time I think it's really, really powerful ciao actually asking people here in the chat rooms what their biggest challenge is right now today with their business, because I want to rattle those off and see what what people, what people are challenge with is what we're facing and what we're going to cover in these classes. So jump in the chat rooms. Everybody let us know what the biggest challenge you are having. And then we'll find out if it's covered in this class. Awesome.

Class Description

Business skills are non-negotiable – you must have them to succeed. Develop yours in Master the Business of Photography. Sal Cincotta will teach the business-first approach to photography you need to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.

The viability of your photography business hinges on your plan. In Master the Business of Photography, you’ll get actionable business insights and guidance from Sal, an award-winning photographer, author, and owner of the million-dollar photography brand, Salvatore Cincotta Photography.

Sal will coach you, start to finish, through the process of developing a winning sales, marketing, and business plan and how to implement it. You’ll define your ideal client, learn how to get your price list right, and develop effective responses to sales objections. You’ll examine emerging trends in engagement and wedding photography and learn how to integrate them into your business. Sal will help you re-imagine and energize every aspect of your photography business.

You’ll learn how to:

Build a portfolio tailored to your ideal target client

Use social media to grow your business and expand your influence

Proactively instigate vendor relationships

Use marketing to book more sessions

Apply the new rules of SEO

You are not entitled to make money – you have to earn it. In this class you’ll develop an action plan for growing your business – no matter how long you’ve been in the business – with 30, 60, 90-day, and 1-year plans for keeping your growth on track.

Photographers work in a competitive industry and everyone can benefit from learning fresh, new marketing, pricing, and sales techniques. Commit to the success of your business and join Sal for Master the Business of Photography.

Brandon D

Sal isn't disgruntled and angry like someone below said, and he doesn't have time for people constantly whining about why their business isn't going good. He's from Brooklyn, so he can come across as harsh at first, but after watching several of his classes and even getting to meet him in person and talk a bit I can tell you he is a really nice guy who truly does want you to succeed. He was very encouraging to me after I thanked him for helping me and my business get to where it is now. Growing up, I can remember photographers grabbing us and posing how they wished. They are often in a hurry to get things right, such as at a wedding, so I am not sure why one reviewer stated he would dismiss them. Sounds like he is just looking for a reason to feel powerful. Anyway, this is a great class to get you on track with your business. Yes, its a bit wedding heavy, but the concepts are the same no matter what. Just apply them to your niche and you are good to go.

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I have been a long time fan of Creative Live and have sat on the fence with all of Sal's classes because I already attend Shutterfest every year and get loaded with valuable information there, so it was hard to pull the trigger on a $300 course that was filmed 5 years ago. Also, in my earlier days of hearing about Sal, I'd heard a lot of negative opinions about how he comes across. Still, I'd heard he's a marketing guru, and my background is in marketing as well, so I really wanted to see what this class was all about.
Now that I've finally gotten it, I'm completely blown away. There is just SO MUCH MATERIAL in this class that its actually difficult trying to decide what to implement first! It is good stuff too. It is all about marketing, sales, and workflow. If you're looking for a class teaching you how to take better photos, this one is not it. This is the class that teaches you how to get your work where everyone is seeing it and convincing people to book you and tell their friends about you!
Now as far as others have already said... this class is definitely geared toward wedding photographers. Yes there are bits of information that work for other types of photography, but it is so heavily wedding oriented that there might be a better fit out there for another type of photographer. If you do weddings though, this is an amazing class! As far as Sal's personality goes.... he's a New Yorker transplanted to St. Louis. So expect that NYC no BS type of attitude. Susan Stripling is another one of my favorites and she is similar in attitude (and also extremely talented), so if you like her, you should like this. If you have a hard time with her, you might have a hard time with this. Regardless, its stuff y'all need to hear and implement to be successful.
Obviously because the class is a bit older, you may have to make small tweaks to a few things (even though he says don't jack with the recipe), but the marketing principles are solid and timeless. Shoot this course is worth it for the SEO advice alone. Just buy it already!

Cheryl Callahan

Sal Cincotta is yet another outstanding educator that I've discovered on Creative Live. In this course he shows us how to implement things in our own business that will help us grow our businesses in this modern age. Personally I've purchased books and gone to photography business classes for years. In one session he mentions how when he and his wife were starting out business practices were something other photographers seemed to be afraid to share. This resonated with me. Everyone is willing to technical aspects but how many are willing to teach business to us? Personally, I just can't decide whether to buy this course or one of his previous ones first. Thank you Sal for stepping up to the plate and having the integrity to share your business knowledge! I'm an artist first and a business person second. I don't know if that will ever change. I do know that the business person part needs to grow and I think this class is a fantastic opportunity to do that.